Hogg laments Scots errors

SCOTLAND captain Stuart Hogg brushed off his historic double against South Africa as he bemoaned the self-destructive errors that led to defeat.

Scotland led the world champions 10-8 at half-time and Hogg gave them hope with his second try, which took him level on 24 with Tony Stanger and Ian Smith on top of the all-time try-scorers list for his country.

The Springboks also managed two tries, both through wing Makazole Mapimpi, but they kicked their way to success on the back of a 15-9 penalty count in their favour.

Finn Russell missed several kicks, but three penalties in the final 15 minutes took South Africa out of sight.

“I’m bitterly disappointed with the result,” Hogg said. “Especially in the first half, we felt we were in control of the game.

“The first 20 minutes we defended like our lives depended on it and kept them out and went down the other end of the field and scored three points. “That was huge for us. “We started very well defensively and unfortunately second half didn’t quite go to plan.

“The boys are absolutely devastated about the result. The second half was far from where we needed to be and it cost us.

“You could say the Springboks were dominant, I would probably disagree. I would say we shot ourselves in the foot at times.

“We didn’t get to vital clearouts, our set-piece didn’t function at times, we just didn’t control the game in the manner we would like to.”

Hogg was in no mood to celebrate his personal achievement.

“It’s not about that,” the Exeter full-back said. “It’s about winning Test matches, it’s about being in a position to keep the momentum going as a national side.”